Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Thanks John.  No I don't have the aluminum base but I have a pretty hard acrylic armboard and the balancing pointed screws are nice and tight.  But good thought.

Chris, I was mistaken there are not two pieces to the VTA block there is a line across the top on both sides of the block that I thought was a seam. On closer inspection, those lines appear to be marks from a mold or part of the manufacturing process.  So....it is now clear from your picture and diagram that the .02 gap is between the block and the manifold housing.  I suppose if this gap were not the same on both sides of the block adjustments to VTA could be different from one side of the block to the other and this would change the leveling of the manifold housing. I'll check the gap on both sides tomorrow.
Harry

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Ah - the VTA Block Harry et al.

So special the worm gear system in the VTA block has its own patent.
Is the reason this tonearm is the only one that doesn’t change VTF, and other settings like all other tonearms, with VTA adjustment do. Still remember the look on the face of an audio acquaintance from years ago, when I told him his $10,000 tonearm changed the VTF every time he used it. He was quite detailed, anal and used to use a digital usb microscope to set VTA/SRA. He was not happy. He had that look like someone had swindled funds from him. Tonearm manufacturers will never bring this up. Its the dirty little secret. The only one (Professional) that has mentioned it on this AudioGon forum is Johnathan Carr. He also discussed in that post how the ET 2 is the only tonearm that does VTA right. But to get it right is not so easy. Factory settings need to be left alone sometime; and as we know Audiophiles like to tinker and mess with design, and sometimes...not realize what they have done. We have all done it?

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The ET2 VTA design is probably also responsible for the biggest ET2 setup issue. And I blame Bruce. His documentation should say don’t mess with those bolts that are set at the factory, (unless you know what you are doing) but in nicer words. Lets face it - A Come to Jesus time moment..... as we used to say in my line of work.

Everyone that has bought this tonearm used, and not already setup on a turntable, in the last 5-10 years, and did not read the manual (too intimidating). IMO most of them, have turned those horizontal bolts to help in setting up the tonearm on the straight line. THEREBY - throwing their ET2 out and creating a mini version of the Leaning Tower of PISA. Too dramatic ?
So IMO the manual is at fault to start. Such a special process that is open to tinkering should have its owned section with warnings. If they told you, your computer needs a change made to the registry files to fix a problem; would you make those changes yourself ? Depends on your knowledge of course. Yet, adjusting those VTA bolts has a similar effect on your tonearm performance if not done right. It won’t work as designed. Is it any wonder that past owners who reach this point, with no instructions in the owners manual - have shut the VTA down - closed it - and said the hell with it. Never knowing what they did ? Just one of this audio hobby’s mysteries.

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The proper way to check your VTA torquing. (Setup on the table or not)

"Pic 34 on my virtual system"

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Turntable "Factory" Drilled ET 2 mounting holes.

The holes drilled into armboards at turntable factories are not all that great. If you have a factory drilled armboard mounting hole. Re-check and re-torque if necessary your ET 2 VTA bolts.
Now tell me, ......does the tonearm still track the straight line ?

Imagine
If your ET2 is mounted on a 20 lb isolated armpod. All you have to do is move it to the table wiggle the base around for the straight line alignment and you are done.

Thanks a lot Chris,
Now I have something else to worry about with this arm. Could you kindly elaborate on the gap between the manifold housing and VTA adjuster? Should the gap be the same at all 4 bolt positions or what? I thought that they simply adjusted the stiffness of the VTA mechanism, and had nothing to do with the arm's geometry. -Simplistic thinking on my part, huh?
Thanks, and g-day
John

The Magic is back!  As mentioned, after playing with VTA everything was sounding very nice last night.  This morning I followed Chris' diagram and reset the space between the VTA block and manifold housing with the .020 in. feeler gauge, reset VTA, leveling and checked tangential tracking.  As soon as the I dropped the needle back in the groove the improvement just jumped out at me.  Transparency was back in spades.  All of the subtle inner detail that makes analog so enticing had returned; like Clapton's finger plucks on "Unplugged", Carol Kidd's breath and the air across Ben Webster's sax reed.  I'm still trying to visualize how the small amount of tinkering I had done to those two top VTA block bolts could have thrown the arm so far out of whack.  But it certainly did.  Thank you, Chris.

And shame on me Frogman for suggesting that raising the armboard on the washers could possibly have contributed to my problems.  Not the case at all. This fix just gave me back VTA adjustment range with no negative side effects I can detect.

Now that I'm done with taking steps backward I can report my observations on the magnesium arm wand.  If I were to reduce my impressions to a single word it would be "control".  It is as if the arm grabs hold of the LP and says "gotcha".  Things firm up, leading edges become more defined, and the space occupied by individual instruments become more defined. This was an improvement well worth the cost.

John, 
My understanding of the bolts in the VTA block is that the top two attach the block to the manifold housing and the bottom two and only the bottom two should be used to adjust stiffness. The top two should be set to where there is a .020 in. gap between the block and the manifold housing and never touched again (see photo and diagram on Chris' virtual system page). You should not try to tweak the top two bolts as I did.  After setting the top gap to .020 in. you can play with the bottom two screws to adjust stiffness if needed.  Listen to me talking like the expert after I screwed this up on my arm and needed Chris to get me straightened out.  :)  I'm sure Chris will correct me if this explanation is not correct.

Happy listening to all,
Harry

Hey Harry,
Your explanation is very helpful. I'm not sure I have an issue with this as I've never messed with the top two bolts out of fear. The manual just says to adjust the bottom two. However, as I see that pic from Chris, the gap gauge he is using says .02 mm, and not inches. Am I reading it wrong with my bad eyes, or did you make a mistake on that info? That's a considerable difference! -smiles.
John